Author: polistra
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Just seemed interesting…
American Radio Library added an old RCA research publication from 1936, exploring the possibilities of TV. At that time the BBC was already broadcasting a regular TV schedule using CRT systems. American stations had been experimenting with both mechanical and electronic systems, and several stations (including the usual NYC suspects and also KMBC in Kansas…
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Coal vs Ice
Here’s a leftover thought from the Ice Industry set, not quite resonant with the theme. I mentioned that Enid Ice and Fuel was in two parallel businesses, processing and delivering portable cold and portable heat. The parallel doesn’t work well. Ice is extremely temporary, almost as evanescent as electricity. Ice can only be stored in…
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Sharp distinction
Sharp observation from Matt Levine at Bloomberg. It’s hard to feel bad for bitcoin “victims”. Semiquoting: 1. Bitcoin requires a tremendous amount of knowledge and familiarity to make any transactions at all. 2. After you’re thoroughly immersed in the reddits and discords and systems needed to understand just one transaction, you ALSO see constant reports…
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Before WP rudely interrupted me…
Back to regularly scheduled snark. Taibbi discusses his parents who were both journalists: My father had a saying: “The story’s the boss.” In the American context, if the facts tell you the Republicans were the primary villains in this or that disaster, you write that story. If the facts point more at Democrats, you go…
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Huh?
This is weird. I opened a new blog post, wanting to say something snarky about journalism. Before I wrote anything, the fresh unused post looked like this (screenshot, not pasted text): This didn’t come from my clipboard. I had just copied a couple sentences from Taibbi’s substack to use for snark material. I definitely didn’t…
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The ice industry, part 1/5
I’ve always been puzzled by the long persistence of household iceboxes. Mechanical refrigeration was invented around 1880. Ice plants had formerly used natural ice from ponds or from frozen pools, requiring massive insulation and storage, but rarely lasting through the summer. They started using refrigeration soon after its invention, and by 1910 all ice production…
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The ice industry, part 2/5
Who invented ice? Fredric Tudor. Obviously ice is a large part of the world, but nobody thought of it as a salable commodity until 1805. Tudor was a wealthy Boston kid with an unbreakable passion for sailing and trading. He knew that spices were the source of many fortunes, but spices were inadequate for preserving…
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The ice industry, part 3/5
The Enid Ice Plant, photographed in the 1920s and seen on the EnidBuzz facebook page, inspired this piece: Ice trade journals from the era list this company as Enid Ice and Fuel, which is a rational business model. They were processing and delivering portable energy, lumps of heat and blocks of cold. The visible tracks…
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The ice industry, part 4/5
How did the ice plant make its portable blocks of coldness? The method was unexpectedly complicated. Here’s the coldroom, where the compressed and relatively cool ammonia is allowed to relieve its pressure and absorb heat from the water that will become ice. What’s going on inside? We have a grid in the floor, over a…
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The ice industry, part 5/5
Summing up: The ice trade journals from the ’20s show an industry starting to grasp its decline, and responding in predictable ways. We need better salesmanship, we need to work harder, we need to organize better. By 1933 the decline was heard in radio comedy. An episode of Mirth Parade (not online now) has an…
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Great interview on economics
Another great interview. Elliott explains macroeconomics in a truly understandable way. His approach should be used in textbooks. The prison analogy is strictly accurate. Been there, done that.
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Connection
Just noticed a meaningful connection. The souls of ordinary people demand justice. We want to see a real crime punished, and we want to see incurable criminals removed or killed. At the moment we have two seemingly unrelated crimes disappearing on their own. The “virus” holocaust, which seemed permanent, halted in late 2020 in sane…
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Interesting dream
Interesting dream just now. I was talking in-person with some politicians, trying to teach them the radical weird concept of “solving problems”. I explained that humans do this all the time, in life and in jobs. Most of the problems humans solve are created by politicians. Unfortunately the politicians were impenetrable. They just looked down…
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Tickled
This joke tickled me. Businessman calling entertainment agency: “How much will it cost to buy a large singing group? I need one for a formal dinner party.” Agent: “Do you mean a choir?” Businessman: “Okay, fine. How much does it cost to acquire a large singing group?”
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Brilliant observation
A brilliant observation by Celia Farber. Something I often think of: Always the arse-end of their PSY OPs fall off, clumsily, after a few years. This is where you can see the whole anaconda of the PSY OP in perfect hindsight clarity, reviewed backwards. Try it with 9/11, or AIDS, or JFK or anything. The…
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